Ancestors of John David COX

Notes

2.
Robert Corson COX

I recieved these notes from Margie Bridges regarding Dad:

"Robert Corson Cox II, b. 9/21/1903 at Scranton; d. 8/22/1962 at Georgetown, MD. Burial at Wellsboro on the Anson Pollock lot with Rev. Bruce Porter of Presby. Church of Wellsboro officiating. Bob was an electrical engineer, was with the Seabees. He was a junior officer the day of the invasion of Normandy. He carried on under fire until his superior officers were killed, took charge, rebuilt some of the floating harbors under fire, and was given the Croix de Guerre by DeGaulle and the Congressional Medal of Honor. It was presented by Wiley Post the day before the plane accident in Alaska which killed Post and Will Rogers. Bob stayed with the Navy, went to Honolulu, and then went into important governmental positions. Was in charge of the rural Electrical Authority for all Western states, located in Iowa. Lived at LeMars, IA. Then with U.S. Reclamation Service. Address: 730 Northhampton Dr., Silver Spring, MD.

(Note: i am fairly certain this information is inaccurate in at least one way - i have not run across any record of him recieving the Medal of Honor. He did receive the Bronze Star, and the Croix de Guerre. Also, the Wily Post thing is a bit confusing. In the Photos i have from the ceremony, it looks like an Admiral or somone pinning the medal on. . . .perhaps Wiley was present)

What i have pieced together factually from documents Mom had in her possession with some color added by research on Mulberry A:

Dad accepted a commission as Lieutenant in the US Naval Reserve December 12, 1942 and came to active duty February 1, 19443. From February to May, he received battalion and construction training at Norfolk and Williamsburg, VA. From May, 1943 to August, he was a Junior Officer in the 67th Naval Construction Battalion. He received orders to proceed to Scotland for duty which had been personally explained to him.

He was Officer-in-Charge of the 97th Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees), 2nd section Cairnhead Detachment, stationed in Dumfries, Scotland in April, 1944 when he received temporary additional orders for duty and proceeded to Southampton, England. He was in Commander Task Force 128, assistant Officer-in-Charge of Bridging Crew #1, a detached unit of the 108th US Naval Construction Battalion, of Mulberry A Operation which landed at Omaha Beach. His superior officers were killed in the initial landing and he assumed leadership.

According to dad, the "floating harbors" which he helped install at Omaha Beach involved the assembly, erection and floating of 3000 lengths of steel bridging made up of 80 foot unit sections buoyed by pontoons, connected together with flexible joints and terminating off shore on a floating steel pier. The capacity of the bridge was 40 tons. The Allied assault had to be secret; work on the harbors had to await the first landings and go on under fire. Before dawn on D-Day, while paratroopers and glider troops were silently descending behind the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula, blockships assembled in the Firth of Lorne were on their way south, armed with the usual 3-inch dual-purpose gun forward and 40-mm antiaircraft guns aft, with six or eight 20-mm anti-aircraft guns in between. The usual 4- or 5-inch anti-submarine stern guns were replaced with the 40-mm anti-aircraft guns, all manned, as usual at sea, by a navy gun crew. (Army gunners manned the guns on the Army Transport Service tugs.)

Operation Mulberry began and continued under fire, and the most essential parts of the job, started on the evening of June 7, were completed on D plus 8, June 14--one day ahead of schedule. Bad luck, in the form of a ferocious summer storm, the worst June gale in 40 years, blew in on June 19 (D plus 13). It came from the north, the worst possible direction, piling up the seas against the beaches, creating a barrier of surf no landing craft could penetrate intact. In three days of unrelenting fury, it all but demolished the American harbor, tossing smaller vessels athwart the causeways and creating general wreckage. The spuds were ruined, and most of Mulberry A was left good for nothing but repair parts for the British harbor. The British port sustained heavy damage too, but, partly sheltered by the Calvados Reef, it was much less damaged than its American counterpart and it was quickly restored to service.

The harbours had been designed to insure against precisely this emergency; but unfortunately the sudden gale caught them before they were finished and before the whole of the breakwaters had been laid. Moreover, whereas we had taken the possibility of a summer gale into our calculation, this gale was of winter strength. An extremely dangerous situation arose. The [Bombardon] breakwater broke up and ceased to give any protection. Both outside the harbours and within them there were ships in distress, ships dragging their anchors or whose anchors were already lost. These threatened further to damage the structure of breakwater and piers.

The American harbour was the worse hit. Great seas surged through the gaps torn in the breakwater, drove small craft ashore, and seriously damaged the piers. Caissons [Phoenixes] which had been breached by pieces of wreckage began to crumble away. However, the harbour and separate "shelters" were already to a great extent performing the function for which they had been designed. A very large number of ships and craft found sanctuary under the lee of the blockships and within the harbour breakwaters. Ships in distress, which would otherwise have been lost with their valuable cargoes, were saved by the friendly shelter of the artificial harbours.

And for three days of appalling weather, while beach unloading was impossible and the Army's supply situation became extremely difficult, a small but very vitally important trickle of stores went ashore through the harbour. Even on the worst day of the gale, 800 tons of petrol and ammunition as well as many hundreds of troops, were landed at Arromanches over the pierheads. Next day, while the gale still raged, this was increased to 1200. Great damage was sustained by the American harbour, which lacked the useful shelter which the Calvados reef provided for the British; and to make matters worse many of the components--caissons and lengths of pier -- were lost or damaged while on tow in the Channel during the three days' gale.

Through the two harbors came 73,000 U.S. and 83,000 British and Canadian troops.

Helen Neal, his aunt, said in July, 1980 in a letter to Beatrice Dickson that he was a "fine Christian boy and thought seriously about entering the Presbyterian ministry after college at Lafayette."

In 2002, in response to a question I asked of my mother, she replied: My Mother's parents ( My Grandparents) could not be named Martin
and Elizabeth. They were John and Sophia Scheatzle. The date you gave me is more likely to be the date Mother was born as Jennie Esther Scheatzle, eldest daughter.

Mabel Scheatzle 3rd daughter, who married
William Colwell, had 3 children, Dorothy, Wm, Jr. and ?

Rena Scheatzle 4th daughter, who married Arthur Renfer, who was a postal worker in Pittston, PA Had 3 children, Shirley, who married Frank Berger, Bethlehem, Arthur, Jr. married & divorced, recently died, and Betty Jane, who married George Weiskerger in Williamsport, PA

Edna Scheatzle, 5th daughter who married Ed Herberts,in Duryea. Had several children Johnny Scheatzle, only son & youngest who
married Beatrice & had a son Kenneth, and ?

Mary Scheatzle, 2nd daughter who married Stanley Jones, Duryea & had one daughter, Grace (Memory)Mary died from an annurism when very young. (I was in 6th Grade. When I do the math I'll try to give you some figures I remember her as Beautiful Auburn haired
There was also Sophia's sister, Aunt Ida Mae Rogers, Duryea
Mother & Dad's first child born in Duryea died as an infant & is buried in Brick Methodst Cemetery in Duryea.
As I remmember we had a bunch of red-haired cousins in Berwyck, PA.
This should be a start & I shall seek more informatiom from some of family.

Maybe
Aunt Dorie knows more about Sophia & Johns fathers background.???
This is getting more interesting but I can't think of any noted or titled
person in this
family..... Maybe you have Questions. Have a Good Day, Love,
Mom